Venezuelan singer Ricardo Montaner embraces Alejandro Osorio, who participates in “Fundación La Ventana de los Cielos,” a program Montaner founded in 2005 to aid children with developmental disabilities. Photo courtesy of Marvis Osorio

Gustavo and Marvis Osorio drive 30 minutes each way every Saturday morning in Miami traffic to “Fundación La Ventana de los Cielos,” or the Window of the Heavens Foundation, so their son Alejandro can learn simple tasks, like jumping.  Alejandro Osorio, 3, has Down syndrome.

“At the beginning, it was really frustrating that my child was born with Down syndrome,” said Gustavo Osorio, Alejandro’s father.  “Little by little, thanks to people who provided us with support, we found the foundation.  It completely transformed our entire lives, our thoughts.”

La Ventana de los Cielos, located in rural Homestead, Fla., is a donor-funded foundation started by Venezuelan singer Ricardo Montaner in 2005.  It provides numerous therapies to children with varying disabilities including Down syndrome, autism and physical paralysis.

“Everything here at the foundation is just for that specific purpose, to give alternative therapies for the kids with special needs or special conditions,” said Andrea Ramos, fundraising assistant at La Ventana de los Cielos.

Every Saturday, volunteers and trained therapists guide the children through five different types of therapies, ranging from interaction with farm animals, equine therapy or therapeutic horseback riding, arts and crafts, music and dance and hydrotherapy.

About two years ago, the Osorios heard about the foundation through an event for families with children who have Down syndrome.  They learned the founder was Venezuelan and felt an instant connection, Alejandro’s father said.

Before Alejandro began attending La Ventana de los Cielos, he was introverted, Mr. Osorio said.

The boy’s mother, Ms. Marvis Osorio, agrees.  She said his connection with the horses has helped him express himself more through his hands and to show feelings and emotions.  She has also noticed an improvement in her son’s physical capabilities.

“[In the beginning], he couldn’t grab the pencils, he would drop them,” Ms. Osorio said.  “Now, he can take the pencil and make lines.”

Although some changes have been gradual, others have been drastic, such as in his horse-riding abilities.  When he started, he refused to touch the horses and rode the whole time with his hands up.  Now, though, he can ride a horse by himself without fear of contact, Mr. Osorio said.

“The therapies began to create that physical contact for him,” he said.  “He sees the animals from a different point of view now.”

Seeing the animals in a different way has also shown to be beneficial in other environments, like interacting with other children, Ms. Osorio said.  The Osorios especially notice the change now when Alejandro goes to parties and has the confidence to play with other children.

Ramos said that Montaner started the foundation because parents would bring children with disabilities to him wherever he went to perform, and he felt God was instructing him to help these children in Miami, where he and his wife live.

“If you have just one time to talk with God, you have to pay attention, and he did,” Ramos said.  “His family is following their instructions, their desires from God, to do this foundation.”

Alejandro’s father attributes the changes he’s seen in his son to a deeper connection he has with the animals.

“When one of these children gets on a horse, there’s a kind of connection,” he said.  “It’s much greater than we could ever understand.  It’s a connection that’s almost spiritual.”

Cuba’s flag has remained the same since the early 20th century while Venezuela’s flag has changed over the years as the country has evolved, most recently at Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s behest, adding an eighth star and changing the horse in the seal to face leftward. Illustration by Corey Erb

The relationship between Cuba and Venezuela has become increasingly important for many Venezuelan students in South Florida with family still living in their home country.

“Estudiantes por la Democracia,” or Students for Democracy, is an organization made up of Venezuelan students mostly from the University of Miami.  One of its main goals is to bring together the Venezuelan community in South Florida to vote on referenda that can create positive changes in Venezuela.

“I believe the most important issue for our organization is first of all, development of Venezuela as a country, economically, democratically and socially as well,” said Eugenio Lascurain, a member of Estudiantes por la Democracia.

Several of the group’s members are afraid to be identified by name because they consider the group to be fighting against the current Venezuelan government.  Some members fear that they, and family members still living in Venezuela, would face retaliation, said one of the group’s executive board members.

“The current government does not tolerate someone who disagrees with their ideas and policies, so they take serious and illegal actions against the individuals who oppose them, violating countless human rights,” the board member said, adding that many in their group need to renew their passports soon.  There is a “big chance” that if the Venezuelan government identifies them as dissidents, their renewals would be denied, the board member said.

Estudiantes por la Democracia meets regularly to discuss issues undermining democracy and human rights in their home country.  They believe the relationship between Cuba and Venezuela is degrading Venezuela’s political freedom and worsening its economy.

Cuba provides Venezuela with military support, nurses and medical technicians, which in turn offers social support for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s regime, said Eugenio Yáñez, editor of the think tank Cubanálisis.com.  He believes Venezuela is “fundamental” to the Cuban economy.

“Both countries depend on each other,” Yáñez said.  “Cuba needs desperately Venezuelan oil, and Chávez needs the support of Cuban intelligence and social workers.”

Yet, Lascurain said such collaboration through programs like “Misión Barrio Adentro,” or Mission Inside the Neighborhood, for instance, is actually hurting Venezuelans.  This program, at the Venezuelan government’s mandate, brings Cuban doctors and nurses to shantytowns in Venezuela to provide cheap medical attention.

“By bringing people from other countries, [the Venezuelan government is] not giving poor Venezuelans space to grow,” Lascurain said.  “In that sense it’s not helping our country economically, or to grow in the long run.”

Casto Ocando, an investigative reporter for El Nuevo Herald, who has covered Cuba-Venezuela relations since 2004, said that government-run medical centers established through this program have suffered from lack of equipment, supplies and security.

“[When Misión Barrio Adentro started], it was considered the best effort engineered by Chavez’s government with Cuban help,” Ocando said.  ”Today, though, that presence has proved to be less and less effective.”

Lascurain said that the program also hurts the quality of Venezuelan health care because the medical professionals Cuba sends are often not trained as well as doctors and nurses educated in Venezuela.

Estudiantes por la Democracia often discusses these programs and people’s perception of them.

Liz Alarcón, a member of the group, said many Venezuelans see only the positive cooperation between these two countries.  She said that positive resources coming into Venezuela from Cuba influence how Venezuelans, who only have access to media controlled by the government, view the negative aspects of Cuba.

Lascurain said a dialogue on Cuba-Venezuela cooperation in South Florida would be important to these communities.  The group has promoted similar forums put on by the University of Miami Center for Hemispheric Policy.  He wants to bring a forum discussing the similarities and differences between the Cuban and Venezuelan populations in South Florida to the area in the near future.

Melissa Guerra, 23, uses her experience being forbidden from playing soccer in Venezuela to being a collegiate athlete to teach young girls in Miami Lakes, Fla. to play the sport. Photo by Corey Erb

It took Melissa Andreina Guerra, 23, a long time to go from watching her brother play soccer in Venezuela to being an American collegiate athlete and now teaching young girls the sport she loves.

Guerra grew up in Venezuela, where she wasn’t allowed to play soccer.

“It was a rough sport, a sport for boys,” she said.  “I wasn’t allowed to play because, due to our culture and our way of being, our family was all about an image.”

Gustavo Guerra, Melissa’s father, said that she was not the first female in the family to be restricted from playing sports.

“My wife’s father never let [my wife] play sports or do anything physical, not even riding a bike or learning how to swim because that was for men,” he said.

In the early 1990s, as a middle class family in Venezuela, the Guerras began feeling more in danger of being robbed or kidnapped in Caracas.

“If you have money in Venezuela, you’re not secure in the streets,” Melissa Guerra said.

Mr. Guerra ran an import-export company in Venezuela after studying in the United States.  He developed business ties between the two countries, hoping to eventually move to the United States. In April 1993, Gustavo and Janet Guerra immigrated with their children to South Florida.

Once the family had established a home in Miami Lakes, Fla., Guerra’s parents slowly warmed up to the idea of Melissa being around sports.  At the age of 10, Guerra became the “water girl” for her older brother’s recreational soccer team.  She was allowed to give the boys water, inflate the soccer balls and pick up the cups.

“[Being a water girl] was my way of being around the balls,” she said, adding that was how she learned the fundamentals of the game.  “What was accepted in my mother’s and father’s eyes was to be a water girl because I was servicing the boys.”

Guerra’s parents signed her up for etiquette classes, cheerleading teams and modeling lessons, but it wasn’t until the age of 12 that she was finally given the chance to play in a recreational soccer league.

“My father kind of stood up for me and said ‘you know what, let’s just give this a try,’” she said.

“Eventually, I let her play because I didn’t want her to be a frustrated individual,” Mr. Guerra said. “I didn’t want her to resent me for not letting her play the sport she loved.”

Melanie Guerra, 22, said she saw her older sister’s attitude change for the better once she was allowed to play soccer.

“She started developing into the person she wanted to be,” Melanie said.  “[Melissa became] a more positive person because she was fulfilling her own needs.”

Melissa moved up from a recreational league to traveling teams and eventually played in high school.  She then joined the women’s soccer team at St. Thomas University, where she earned a scholarship that allowed her to go to college for free while playing her favorite game.

Now Guerra coaches two different teams of young girls in Miami Lakes, the community where she was first given the chance to pursue her dream.

Her father believes that because of soccer his daughter is “a happier person and a leader.”

“To me, it’s an honor to see her as a coach,” he said.

Although soccer never came easy for Guerra, she says she doesn’t regret the efforts she had to undertake to be able to play.

“Soccer has been such a struggle in my life, and it’s made me who I am today,” she said.  “Now, I am giving back to the community what I once wanted to be given to me.”

Q: Why did you come to this country, and to Miami?
A: I saw more opportunity for my business here.  [It was] not for any political reasons.

Q: Why did/do Venezuelans come to Miami?
A: We had two immigrations: The first was because people were economically scared.  Those people came, they brought their family here, and the man of the house went back. [He] kept the business in Venezuela. The second immigration are those that are coming now.  They are struggling. The situation has worsened and worsened.  That’s why you have a lot of people emigrating from Venezuela.  There’s a lot of political asylum here, actual political asylum.  We have political prisoners [in Venezuela].  We have prisoners who’ve been in jail for seven years and haven’t had their day in court yet.  We have 35 of those, because of the police.

Q: How did you get involved in IVAC and “Clinica Venamher”?
A: In 2000, there was a mudslide in Venezuela.  Chavez was elected in 1998.  He was having elections at the time of the mudslide, so he didn’t want anybody to know.  He didn’t give any support to the people in Venezuela.  We started to collect food here in Miami, loads of food, to send food, clothing, medicine, everything to Venezuela.  That’s how we met between us, all the Venezuelans, and from that work, we sent more than 400 containers to Venezuela.  That’s how the brotherhood [“Clinica Venamher”] started.  Since then, the problem with Chavez has gotten worse and worse.  More people have been coming over to Miami.  More organizations started.  In 2002, we had a huge rally in Calle Ocho—the biggest rally in Calle Ocho ever.  It was 22 blocks full of people.  That was after the 11th of April, which is when they took Chavez out of power for 48 hours.  It was people from all over the world—not only Venezuelans.

Q: How many Venezuelans are there in Miami?
A: Nobody, not even the consulate, knows how many Venezuelans are here. Sixteen thousand were registered to vote in the Venezuelan elections. But that doesn’t give you anything either because there’s more than 16,000 here.  People talk about how there could be between 100,000 and 150,000 Venezuelans, but nobody knows.

Q: Where are they located?
A: Around Miami, there are three main cities or places where they live—Doral, Kendall, and Weston.  We joke between us.  We call it Westonzuela, Doralzuela.  I would say Weston is where most of them are.

Q: What are the main goals/objectives of IVAC?
A: To teach our children how the government conforms here in the United States; to teach people to know their rights; to help residents become American citizens. We don’t take a [political] position.

Q: How did the people in Miami vote on the referendum to allow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to run for reelection indefinitely?
A: Ninety-nine percent against, one percent for.  One hundred votes pro, 7,000 against.

Q: Do you think it’s important for Venezuelans to make their concerns known in English?
A: Yes. We need to get our representatives and our senators involved, in order to know what’s going on.  The only way to do that is [by] talking in English or at least Spanglish.

Q: How do you reach out to Venezuelans through “Clinica Venamher”?
A: We use advertisements in local Venezuelan newspapers and magazines.  Another way is word of mouth.  We do fundraising.

Q: After many Cubans came to Miami during the Castro revolution, Cubans have become a major political force here.  What lessons can Venezuelans take from the Cubans’ experience in Miami?
A: We have a lot to learn from the Cubans.  We respect very much what they did and how they did it.  We follow that.  We have to be thankful to the Cuban community because they have helped us since the beginning. Right now, [Venezuelans] are in Cuba 1959.  The process has just started.  Thank God we have their advice.